By John Hayden

Nothing predicts the future better than the past. 

At a time when the LGBTQ community is fighting against being erased, preserving and telling our history is more important than ever. Stonewall National Museum & Archives in Fort Lauderdale is the keeper of our history. The LGBTQ equivalent of Egypt’s Great Library of Alexandria, the site has a thorough collection of knowledge that can easily be lost if not cared for.

Stonewall has more than 28,000 books as well as a treasure trove of media that chronicles our stories stretching back decades before the Stonewall Riots of 1969. 

“It’s very important for organizations like this to continue to fight for LGBTQ rights,” Hunter O’Hanian, Stonewall’s Executive Director, told OutClique. “But also, to make sure that this history, work, and 50 years of activism have not gone away. There are people that are continuing to fight for it.”

The Museum is in the midst of its membership drive, which is as focused on raising awareness of our history as it is on raising money. 

“Membership is important because we are a small, non-profit organization,” O’Hanian explains. “We only have three employees and only a half million-dollar budget. We have a university-sized library and archive here.”

Members get access to the materials and are allowed to check out books. They also get discounts at area businesses and, most importantly, help keep our history alive, loud, and proud. 

“Florida is a great example,” O’Hanian says. “In the late 1950s and early 1960s, there was something known as the Johns committee. The state legislature tried to remove every homosexual from teaching in any of the state’s colleges. They even entrapped young males in men’s rooms and public places to prove that they were homosexuals.”

If the story of trying to silence LGBTQ voices seems eerily familiar and modern, that’s because things like the “Don’t Say Gay” and “Stop Woke Act” are really history repeating.

Stonewall’s focus is the LGBTQ communty, and it is working to get their wealth of materials into the hands of people who can make a difference. 

“We’ve done several things,” O’Hanian says. “Number one is the board has adopted a very proactive statement in opposition to the [‘Don’t Say Gay’] bill. The idea that you can’t say gay, we’re going the exact opposite and telling everyone to say gay. The other thing we’re doing is we’re ratcheting up the disbursement of materials that we have. Making those materials available to teachers who want to teach an LGBTQ curriculum about history and how you can talk about gay leaders in sports or music or literature.”